1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method, system, and program for storing and displaying markings in an electronic media file and, in particular, displaying markings from multiple users.
2. Description of the Related Art
In current document editing systems, users typically enter markings and modifications to a document and store such markings and modifications with the document. A marking can be any highlighting, strikeout, line, font change, handwritten indication added to text, underlining, double underline, redline, bold, italics, etc. A highlighting is a thin color film through which the underlying text is visible. For group editing projects, a group member may edit and markup the document and transmit the revised and edited document to another group member for review and further editing. In such group editing environments, groups of users can edit a document on-line by entering textual notes into the document being edited. Such notes are typically entered into pop-up windows which appear in the document. The user may enter textual memos into the pop-up window.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,146,552, entitled xe2x80x9cMethod for Associating Annotation with Electronically Published Material,xe2x80x9d which is assigned to International Business Machines Corporation (xe2x80x9cIBMxe2x80x9d), the assignee of the subject patent application and which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, describes a program which allows a user to review and display annotations or notes created by the user or shared and exchanged between users with access to a copy of the same published electronic document. The annotations may be associated with a particular context within the document. Users can review and merge notes from other users, and display such notes with the electronic document.
Many of the current systems for editing and marking-up documents are intended for documents which are read/write capable, thereby allowing the user to make changes directly into the document. However, in many cases, a user may be viewing a document in a read-only format. For instance, a user may be reviewing a Hypertext Mark-Up Language (HTML) document with an HTML browser, e.g., NETSCAPE Communicator, the MICROSOFT Internet Explorer, Spry Mosaic, NCSA Mosaic, Lynx, Opera, GNUscape Navigator et. With such HTML browsers and other viewers for viewing read-only documents, such as the ADOBE Acrobat Reader, users typically cannot directly edit the HTML document while in viewing mode.*
Text editors, such as WORDPERFECT and MICROSOFT WORD, allow users to mark-up and edit a document. However, with such text editors, the user must save the modified and marked-up file over the original document or save the original and edited document in separate files. If many users are group editing a document, then difficulties may arise tracking the different versions reflecting the mark-ups and edits from different users in the network system.
There is thus a need in the art for an improved system, method, and program for storing and displaying markups to an electronic media file.
To overcome the limitations in the prior art described above, preferred embodiments disclose a method, system, and program for displaying markings to electronic media in an electronic media file. A marking file includes markings and address information indicating locations of electronic media in the electronic media file to which the markings apply. The marking file is created by receiving marking input entered into a graphical user interface (GUI) window displaying the electronic media on a monitor attached to the computer. The marking file is then stored as a separate file from the electronic media file. The electronic media file and marking file are processed to display the markings indicated in the marking file superimposed on the electronic media from the electronic media file on the monitor.
The electronic media file may include electronic media in the form of text, graphical images, video images, audio, three dimensional images, and any other media format known in the art. The electronic media may originate from the computer displaying the markings superimposed on the electronic media or from another location, such as a server over a network transmission line, e.g., the Internet or an Intranet.
In further embodiments when the electronic media includes text, the markings may be an indication to highlight at least one character of the text, an indication to mark a position in the text for an annotation or an indication of striking out at least one character.
In still further embodiments, a plurality of marking files may each include markings, address information indicating locations of the markings in the electronic media, and a color associated with the markings. An input device to a computer may provide selection input indicating at least two selected marking files. The markings from the selected marking files may then be displayed as superimposed onto the electronic media. If the markings are associated with a color and the markings in the selected marking files mark a same location of electronic media, a combination color comprised of the colors associated with the markings is displayed superimposed onto the electronic media.
In yet further embodiments, input indicating an overlap color associated with markings from at least two marking files is received. The markings that mark the same location of electronic media are displayed in the overlap color.
With preferred embodiments, users may cause the display of markings, such as highlightings, strikeouts, etc., from a marking file superimposed onto electronic media, such as text or images. In preferred embodiments, the marking file and electronic media file are separate files. In this way, the displayed overlay of the markings in the marking file onto the electronic media from the electronic media file does not alter the formatting, spacing or content of the electronic media file.
Preferred embodiments are particularly applicable to network environments where multiple users may edit a document. Each user may create a marking file of user specific markings in a color associated with that user. In this way, another user may select multiple marking files to view the markings from different users in the displayed text. The markings would be displayed in the color associated with the selected marking file to allow the user to distinguish markings among the users who created the markings. Moreover the user may select an overlap color to indicate overlapping markings from two particular users.
Still further, users in a network may share marking files indicating specific markings to a documents without altering the document. A user need only receive the marking file transmitted over a network if the user otherwise has a copy of the associated electronic media file to which the markings apply. Further, users may selectively display markings generated from other people without altering the underlying text document. This allows multiple users to make markings and edits to electronic media document without generating multiple versions of the electronic media file throughout the network.